


Rebel Beat

by WeirdyMcWeirderton



Series: Alex Series [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 18:13:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1867557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdyMcWeirderton/pseuds/WeirdyMcWeirderton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff are called in to see Coulson where they learn some news they'd never thought they would receive. On top of that, the team has a new mission that's going to push some buttons, cut open some barely healed wounds, and give new ones. Will the team be able to fight against their unexpected foe? Will Clint and Natasha welcome the new addition?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I know this has been done a few times but I wanted to give it a try. First off, I’m am writing this by only going off the movie and what little I’ve read about the characters online, so please bear with me. Secondly, I know that technically Black Widow cannot have kids, but for the sake of the story, she can. So, this would be AU in that sense. Thirdly, this is my first Avengers story, so I would love to hear what everyone thinks about it and I love getting feedback. I have written numerous Supernatural and Leverage stories so if you guys are fans of those shows I would love for you to check out my other stories as well. Anyways, on to the story.  
> DISCLAIMER: I own nothing of the Avengers. I only own Alex.

Agents Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff stare at the file in front of them. It had been a few years since they started with the Avengers, but never have they imagined those three words coming out of Coulson’s mouth.  
We found her.   
Natasha looks over at Phil Coulson first, studying him, making sure what he is telling them is the truth. It all started in Budapest; with a little too much to drink after a death defying mission and waking up the following morning in the same bed as your partner, your clothes strewn across the floor. Neither one of them, Natasha or Clint, knew how much this would change everything. Not until a couple months down the road when she found out she was pregnant. Seven months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Natasha glances at the file: Alexandra Daniela Barton. It had been years since either one of them had seen her, sixteen to be exact. Three months after she had given birth, they were attacked and their little baby girl was taken from them. They had searched for her through hell and high water but to no avail. They never even found a trace of her. Not until now that is. Natasha looks back up to Coulson.   
“When…?” she begins, but can’t voice the question.  
“Six years ago,” Coulson answers, waiting for the inevitable fallout. Clint’s head shoots up at hearing this.  
“Six years…?” he asks, his own question not finished. “What the hell have you been doing? Waiting for the right moment?”  
“We didn’t know…” Phil begins.  
“How did you not know?” Natasha asks heatedly, death in her glare. “You found her…”  
“I didn’t find her. We had an alternative branch in S.H.I.E.L.D. One for orphans,” Phil explains.  
“You took orphans off the street and made them into mini-agents?” Natasha asks, scoffing at the thought of it. Her mind wanders to her days in the Red Room.   
“No. We took orphans off the street and gave them a choice. If they chose not to, they were put in foster homes. The others who chose to do it, were put in the program. I didn’t have any information on who was in the program,” Phil explains further.  
“Then how did you get this?” Clint asks, lifting up the S.H.I.E.L.D. file.   
“The program converged with us last year. All of the files were sent over. I was just recently put in charge of it and was given full access. I saw this when I was going through the files,” Coulson answers.  
“Why didn’t they change her name? How is it…?” Romanoff asks.  
“Supposedly, that was the name she told us when we found her. Talked to the original handler and he said she had a blanket with the name on it,” Coulson replies. Natasha’s mind wanders to the purple blanket she had gotten for their daughter. The one she would wrap around her before she put her to bed.   
“Does she know?” Barton asks.  
“No. I wanted to talk to you two about this first,” Phil says.  
“When can we see her?” Natasha asks.  
“This afternoon,” Phil says. “I am telling you this now because we have a problem.”  
“What kind of problem?” Clint asks, eyeing Coulson.  
“An Avenger kind of problem,” Coulson replies. “We’re having a meeting at S.H.I.E.L.D. at two o’clock. The thing is…”  
“What?” Natasha and Clint ask.  
“Alexandra is our…informant,” Phil says.  
“I’m confused,” Barton says.  
“Her and her partner, Johnny, have recently discovered information about a group of scientists doing experiments on kids, teenagers. To create the perfect superhero. Supervillian. Whatever they’re planning. We’re not sure yet,” Coulson explains.   
Natasha and Clint share a look, not liking the sound of this at all. Clint looks over at Phil, mustering the courage to ask the question.  
“Did they…? Was she…?” he asks.  
“No,” Coulson answers, knowing what the parents want to ask, “But her partner, Johnny, he was one of them.”

AVENGERS

“So, let me get this straight,” Banner says to Coulson. They had arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D. a little while ago and Phil Coulson had just finished explaining to the team what they were going up against. “These guys knowingly made this moody teenage kid into a no-anger management Hulk?”  
“Count down from a hundred Banner,” Tony Stark says, noticing, as well as everyone else, how the guys’ anger is bubbling up. No need to have said Hulk come over for a visit. Bruce closes his eyes and tries his hardest to calm himself down.   
“We need to find these guys and bring them in,” Phil says.   
“So the kid gets angry and turns into a green monster like Bruce?” Stark asks, turning his attention to Coulson.  
“Not entirely. They modified it. Made it so he doesn’t ‘Hulk out’,” Phil says. “When he gets angry he gets bigger but still looks human. And he develops the strength five times that of a normal human being. He doesn’t feel injuries but if he takes a lethal shot he will die.”  
“When do we get to meet the two agents?” Steve asks.  
“They should be coming up here any…” Phil begins but is interrupted by an alarm sounding. Phil looks towards the ceiling, a worried look on his face. “Dammit.”  
An agent quickly enters the room and walks over to Phil Coulson, a worried look on his own face. Coulson turns his attention to him.  
“Is that what I think it is?” Coulson asks him.  
“Yes sir,” the agent answers.  
“We need to find Barton. Now,” Coulson says urgently.  
“She’s already there sir. She was there when it happened,” the agent replies.  
“All right, follow the protocol,” Coulson orders. The agent nods his head and disappears out the door. The Avengers all look towards Coulson, silently wondering what’s going on. Banner speaks up for the team.  
“Is that alarm what I’m thinking it is?” Banner asks. Coulson turns his attention towards the team.  
“If you think it means Johnny has…” Phil begins trying to find the words for it.  
“Gotten angry?” Banner asks.  
“Yes. Then, yes it does,” Phil answers.   
“We should go help,” Rogers says.  
“That’s a bad idea,” Coulson says. “The more variables the worse it gets.”

AVENGERS

Alexandra walks towards the shooting range, her arrows in their case strapped to her back, her bow in her hand. She hears a commotion coming from the gym just ahead and she slows her walk, curious as to what is going on. Suddenly, there are screams heard and people begin streaming out of the gym, most of them teenagers that were with her back at their original building. Alexandra runs over to the door, trying to peer in over everyone rushing out the door.   
“Crap,” she mutters, seeing Johnny standing in the middle of the room, his transformation already done. Her eyes narrow at the teenaged boy cowering in the corner, Gregory Nicholson. He was always causing trouble for Johnny and this time, it seems, Johnny wasn’t turning the other cheek. She carefully walks into the gym and towards Johnny.   
“Johnny?” she says calmly, holding her hands up in placation, having put her bow on her back. Johnny looks over at her, anger evident in his face and nothing else. Alexandra looks over at Greg angrily, seeing Johnny is too far gone. “What did you do?”  
Before Greg can answer Johnny shoves the bag out of his way and charges at him. Greg’s eyes grow big and he bolts up, running straight for the door, shoving Alexandra out of the way. Alex stumbles slightly but catches her balance. She hears a roar behind her and she turns around in time to have Johnny shove her out of the way and run out the door after Gregory. Alex flies through the air and crashes into the wall, falling to the floor. She lets out a groan and pushes herself to her hands and knees, looking up but not seeing either of the agents. She pushes herself to her feet and runs towards the door. She hits a big red button right before she flies down the hall in search of the two agents, an alarm beginning to blare.  
Alexandra runs down the abandoned hallways, everyone knowing to lock themselves in rooms when the alarm sounds. She hears a door slam up ahead and she rounds the corner to see Johnny smash a hand through a door.   
“Johnny!” she shouts, running down the hall. Johnny turns at hearing his name, angry at being disturbed. Alex pulls out an arrow and puts it in her bow as she runs towards him. Johnny growls and takes a couple steps forward, hitting Alex in the side and sending her through the door on the right.

AVENGERS

“We can’t just leave her to deal with this on her own,” Romanoff argues.  
“She’s done this numerous times before. She’ll just get pissed if we intervene,” Coulson says. “She gets very protective of the guy.”  
There is a roar out in the hall and the group turns their heads to look at the door. A teenaged boy runs by and into the open door across the hall, slamming the door behind him. An extremely muscular teenaged boy runs by as well, obviously angry.  
“This isn’t good,” Phil says as he hears Johnny slam a fist into the door. A shout of Johnny’s name is heard down the hall and everything goes silent for a second. A figure runs by, but before any of the Avengers can say anything, the door to their room slams open and a body flies in, crashing into the table and to the floor.  
Alex looks up, seeing her bow a few feet away, she scurries over to it and grabs it. She looks around, but doesn’t see the arrow anywhere. Johnny growls and appears in the doorway. Phil looks around and sees the arrow in the corner, grabbing it quickly.  
“Barton!” Alex looks up and sees Phil throw the arrow to her and she catches it, setting it in her bow and shooting. He imbeds itself into the wall behind Johnny, up to the feathers. Johnny lets out and angry yell and moves to run at her. Alex yanks out another arrow and shoots it at Johnny before grabbing another arrow and aiming, waiting. The arrow hits Johnny, letting out enough of an explosion to send him backwards and into the wall. Just as Johnny reaches the wall, Alexandra shoots the last arrow. It imbeds itself parallel to the first arrow on the other side of Johnny. There is a hissing noise and the first arrow opens up and a steel bar appears, strapping Johnny to the wall and connecting to the other arrow. Johnny fights against his restraint but is unable to break it, letting out an angry yell. Alex sighs in relief and sits down on the table. She looks over at Coulson.  
“Coulson. Two words. Tranquilizer Arrows,” she says, sighing again and making a face as she feels her already bruising ribs.

AVENGERS

“So, do you normally take on moody, “hulked-out” teenage boys by yourself?” Stark asks, looking over at Alexandra, not missing the way Barton and Romanoff continue to stare at her. Johnny had calmed down a short time ago and had left to get changed before joining the meeting.   
“Alex is our top Agent in Martial Arts and the Bow and Arrow. Excluding of course the Black Widow and Hawkeye,” Coulson says.  
“You mean amongst the teenagers,” Steve says.  
“No, I mean overall,” Coulson says.   
“Coulson won’t let me use the guns yet,” Alex says.  
“It’s against the law,” Coulson says for what seems to be the thousandth time.  
“You are the law,” Alex points out, earning a smirk from Natasha and Clint.  
“You can’t be older than what? Thirteen?” Stark asks, eyeing Alexandra up. Alex shoots him a glare.  
“I’m sixteen,” she says.  
“Alexandra is…dedicated,” Coulson says, giving the two assassins a look.   
“No…she’s just stubborn. She doesn’t like to be doubted. Has to always prove everyone else wrong,” a voice says from the doorway. The group, excluding Alex, turn to see Johnny standing in the doorway. He gives Coulson a nod before taking a seat next to Alexandra. “Our handler told her she’d never beat the guys in hand-to-hand so she made sure she could. The guys said she’d never be as good as them at the shooting range so she made sure she was better.”  
“You must get that from your parents,” Stark says, earning a look he can’t quite place from Alex. He hadn’t missed the name Coulson shouted when he threw her the arrow. One look at her and he knew exactly who her parents were. She looked just like Romanoff, except the blue eyes and brown hair. Those were all Barton’s.  
“I wouldn’t know,” she says off-handedly, bringing Stark back to the conversation. “So, should we get down to business?”


	2. Chapter 2

“We don’t know what these guys are planning so until we do, expect the worst,” Phil says, looking at each of the Avengers.  
“Shouldn’t someone contact Thor?” Steve asks. Coulson nods his head.  
“We are already in the process of doing that. Although, I hope things don’t get to the point we need him,” Phil answers. Steve nods his head and the Avengers stand up, getting ready to leave. Alex and Johnny follow suit, Alex grabbing her bow and arrow which are leaning against the wall.  
“Alexandra, we need to talk,” Phil says, sending a look towards Clint and Natasha. Alex looks over in Coulson’s direction, eyes wide.  
“What? Why?” she asks.  
“I’ve found out some information…” Phil begins but Alex cuts in.  
“If this is about the target tournaments, I’m sorry, but I’m doing nothing wrong,” she says.   
“What?” Phil asks, confused.  
“I mean, if I was hiding my skill and then challenging them and winning the fifty bucks that’s one thing, but if they know how good I am and they’re stupid enough to still do it, they deserve to lose their money,” Alex says. “I’m just saying.”  
Clint snorts, but quickly hides it when he gets a look for Natasha and Phil.   
“Actually, this has nothing to do with that, but I guess I need to address that later,” Coulson says. Alex groans, realizing she just blew herself in. The Avengers walk out of the room and Coulson sits back down in his chair. Alex gives him a look, noticing his seriousness, and takes a seat in the chair she just vacated.  
“What’s wrong?” she asks. Coulson takes a deep breath.  
“I don’t know how else to say this except to do it outright,” Phil says.  
“Say what?” Alexandra asks. Coulson gives her a look before pulling out a file and sliding it over to her. Alexandra looks down at it, looking back up at Coulson with a raised eyebrow. Phil Coulson nods his head towards it and Alex opens it up, seeing pictures and information on Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton. Alex looks back up at Coulson, having seen Clint, or Hawkeye’s, last name. “What is this?”  
“Those…are your parents,” Phil says.   
“What?” she asks, not daring to believe it. She looks back down at the file and really looks at the pictures. She did look an awful lot like Romanoff, except she had Barton’s eyes and hair. And the last name; she couldn’t forget that. “How did you find this out?”  
“I saw your file when your unit merged in with us. Recognized the name,” Phil explains.  
“Yeah, but no one else said anything. I’ve been with S.H.I.E.L.D. for six years,” Alex says.  
“Other than Barton and Romanoff, Fury and I were the only ones who knew you even existed,” Phil says. “And after you were kidnapped…”  
“What?” Alex asks, her head whipping up.   
“You were kidnapped. You didn’t know that?” Coulson says. Alex shakes her head, looking back down at the file.  
“Did…um…do they know?” she asks.  
“Yes. I told them earlier today,” Phil answers. Alex looks back up at him.  
“Wait, earlier today? Why are you just telling me now?” she asks, starting to get angry.  
“Because I needed to talk to them first,” Coulson replies.  
“Why?” Alex demands.  
“Listen. Your parents have been looking for you for over fifteen years. You were three months when you were taken from them. They needed to know first in order for the news to sink in. Give them a chance to come to terms with it before seeing you,” Coulson explains.  
“You just now realized they were my parents?” Alex asks, changing the subject.  
“I’m sorry?”  
“We joined with you a year ago. It took you this long to read my file?”  
“No,” Coulson says. Alex scoffs. “I had to make sure. There was no sense in giving them hope only to take it away. They wouldn’t have been able to go through that again.”  
“I need…I need to go,” Alex says, getting up and grabbing her bow and arrows again.  
“Alexandra…”  
The name falls on deaf ears though as Alex escapes the room, the air feeling heavy on her chest. She runs down the hall and towards her bunk. Before she gets there, though, she makes a sharp turn and heads towards a familiar sight. Johnny looks up as Alex walks towards him.  
“Hey, did Coulson rip you a new one about the target tourna…” Johnny begins but stops seeing the look on her face. “What’s wrong?”  
Alex shuts his door and sets her bow and arrows on his table before sitting on the bed next to him. She turns to face him and studies him for a moment.  
“What?” he asks.  
“Coulson found my parents,” Alex says.  
“Oh, okay…wait, what?” Johnny says, thrown off guard by her bluntness.   
“He found my parents,” she says.  
“How? Who?” he asks.  
“He said he read my file. Recognized my name. He didn’t say anything because he wanted to make sure so he did a little digging. When he found out it was me, he told my parents about me.”  
“Why didn’t Morris say anything?” Johnny asks. Morris was they’re handler back at the original building.   
“He didn’t know about me I guess. Coulson said he and Fury were the only ones who knew about me other than my parents,” Alex answers.  
“Who are they?” Johnny asks. Alexandra hesitates, looking around the room.  
“Alex. Who are they?” he asks again. Alex looks back over at him.  
“Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton,” she answers.  
“Wait, aren’t those the two from the Avengers? What are their names? Black Widow and…”  
“Hawkeye? Yeah,” Alex finishes.  
“So, are you going to go see them? What are you going to do?” Johnny asks.  
“I…I don’t know,” Alex says. “I mean it was a really long time ago…”  
“Hey,” Johnny says, getting her attention. “Don’t ruin this because you’re scared.”  
“I’m not scared,” Alex says defiantly. Johnny gives her a look that says he doesn’t believe her.  
“Your parents want you in their life,” he says.  
“How do you know that?” she asks.  
“They came today didn’t they?” Johnny points out. Alex thinks about this for a moment, nodding her head. Sometimes, she really hated how much sense her partner made.

AVENGERS

Thump. Thump. Thump.   
Alexandra continues to punch the bag in front of her. She needed to think after talking to Coulson and Johnny. Needed to sort through her thoughts and figure out her next move. She was in the gym, even if it was still a mess from Johnny’s little escapade. However, this was a good thing because no one else was there because of it. She hits the bag again, her mind wandering to years ago.  
“I want to find my parents,” an eight year old Alexandra says. Vern looks up from his paper, surprised by her statement.  
“What? Why?” he asks.  
“You said you found me. Took me in. I want to find my real parents,” Alex says. Vern takes a deep breath and sighs.  
“Alexandra…” he begins.  
“What? I should be able to know who they are,” Alexandra says.  
“It’ll only end in heartache,” Vern says.  
“Why?” the young girl challenges. Vern studies her for a moment.  
“All right. Fine. You deserve to know the truth,” Vern says, earning a curious look from Alexandra. “Your parents were under attack. They ran, leaving you behind. I saved you and waited. Waited to see if they’d come back to look for you. They never did. They left you Alexandra. So I took you in. Raised you as my own.”  
Vern watches as the little girl wipes away a few stray tears. He takes a step towards her but she back away.  
“No. That’s a lie!” Alex yells, tears freely falling. She turns around and runs out of the house.  
Alex hits the bag a few more times before stopping. She rests her forehead on it, closing her eyes. She takes a few deep breathes before coming to a decision. She shoves the bag away from her and walks out of the gym.

AVENGERS

Clint and Natasha are sitting at a table in one of the many rooms at S.H.I.E.L.D. looking at the files Coulson had given them about the scientists. Bruce and Tony were upstairs looking through the research and scientific part of the mission and the Captain was studying the layout. The door to the room suddenly flings open and they look up to see Alexandra walk in.  
“Did you look for me?” she asks, emotion clear on her face. Clint and Natasha are taken aback by the question.  
“What?” they ask.  
“Did…Did you look for me after you left me behind?” Alex says, her courage wavering.  
“Of course we did,” Natasha says. “Why would you think we didn’t? And…And we didn’t leave you behind.”  
“I…you were attacked. You left…” Alex says. Natasha shakes her head.  
“We were attacked. But we didn’t leave you,” she replies.  
“We were fighting them off,” Clint puts in. “We heard a noise in the back room and by the time we got there, the window was in pieces and you were gone.”  
“We looked for you every day,” Natasha says. “But we could never find a lead. Not until Coulson told us earlier today.”  
“Okay,” Alex says, feeling her eyes begin to water. “That’s…That’s all I needed to know.”  
With that, Alex turns and walks away. She wipes the tears that have escaped away, not wanting anyone to see them. Clint and Natasha share a look.  
“I’ll go,” Natasha says leaving before Clint can disagree. Natasha round the corner seeing Alexandra speedily escaping.  
“Alex!” Natasha yells, picking up her pace and jogging up to her. When Alex doesn’t stop, Natasha cuts in front of her and puts her hands on Alex’s shoulders, forcing her to stop. “Why did you leave?”  
“I…I need to think about all of this. This is a lot to take in,” Alex answers. Natasha nods her head.  
“You don’t have to do this alone,” she says. It’s Alexandra’s turn to nod her head.  
“I know,” she replies. “Thanks.”

AVENGERS

“All right what have we got?” Coulson asks. Stark, Banner, and Rogers were all sitting at the table in front of him. The door opens and Romanoff walks in, taking a seat at the table.  
“Where’s Barton?” Coulson asks her. Natasha gives him a look.  
“He’s coming,” she says. Coulson nods his head and turns his attention back to the group as the door opens and Clint walks in taking a seat next to Natasha.  
“It looks as if they are taking the basic ideas from scientific mishaps, like Banners, and tweaking them for better results,” Stark says.   
“And so far, from what we can tell, they’re doing a successful job of it,” Banner says disgustedly.   
“Steve?” Coulson asks.  
“I think I found us a route in that’ll include the least amount of…conflict,” Steve says, setting the blueprints down on the table.  
“We got eyes on this place?” Natasha says before Steve continues.  
“Yes, we have two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the premises keeping tabs on the place,” Coulson answers her. Before Steve can chime in with his plan the door opens again and Fury walk in, his face tense.  
“We have a problem,” he states.  
“What kind of problem?” Natasha asks.  
“The scientists headquarters? They’re getting active,” Fury answers.  
“What do you mean by active?” Barton asks.  
“I mean vehicles are coming and going. Coming with no one in them and leaving with people from the building,” Fury explains.  
“That’s not good,” Tony says, sitting forward in his chair.  
“No it’s not,” Fury says.  
“You know what they’re planning?” Steve asks.  
“Not a clue,” Fury answers. “But something tells me we need to give our friendly neighborhood God a call.”


	3. Chapter 3

Alex shoots an arrow at the target, dropping and shoulder rolling to the side before standing up and shooting another arrow at another target. A target appears from the ceiling on her right and she quickly shoots another arrow at it. She grins and lets her bow drop to her side, turning to look over at Johnny who is shaking his head. He glances at his own targets, all of which are good but nothing compared to the bulls eye hit on all ten targets for Alexandra.  
“I don’t know how you do it,” Johnny says with a proud grin.  
“Yeah, well, either way, loser gets the arrows,” Alex says with a smirk. Johnny shoots her a scowl and begins gathering the arrows from each target. He brings the arrows back and hands Alex hers, which she accepts, putting them back in her quiver.   
“So, have you talked to Agent Romanoff and Barton yet?” Johnny asks. Alex shrugs her shoulders.  
“Yeah,” she says, putting her last arrow away.  
“And?” he prods.  
“What? Everything I was ever told about my life was a lie. You surprised?” she says heatedly. Johnny puts his hands up in surrender.  
“Hey, just curious,” he says. Alex sighs, letting the anger drift away.  
“So, you going to go live with them now?” Johnny asks.  
“What? No way,” she says.  
“Why not?”  
“Well, ‘cause that would be way weird. I mean, I’ve never met them before today. Wouldn’t that be really awkward?” Alex points out.  
“No, it would be hawkward,” Johnny says with a smirk. Alexandra looks over at him, recognizing the play on Hawkeye’s name. She rolls her eyes and gives him a playful shove.   
“Either way, I mean, you should at least get to know them. Then, maybe down the road it won’t be so weird to live with them,” Johnny says.  
“Yeah, I guess,” Alex says, thinking about what Johnny said. Johnny looks over at the door and sees Clint Barton enter the shooting range. He lightly smacks Alex in the arm.  
“Well, here’s your chance,” he says, gathering his things. Alex gives him a questioning look and Johnny nods towards the door. She turns and looks over to see Clint walking towards them. “I’ll see you around.”  
Johnny gives Clint a nod and disappears out the door. Clint walks over to where Alex is standing. He glances over at the targets, seeing the holes in every bulls eye. He nods towards them.  
“That your doing?” he asks. Alex looks in the direction Clint is looking.  
“Uh…yeah,” she says.  
“That’s pretty good,” he says. He looks back over at the room before him, set up for an open target practice where shooters could move about the room freely. “What do you say about a game of pig?”  
Alexandra looks over at him, eyebrows raised.   
“You mean like the basketball game?” she asks.   
“Yeah, only archer edition,” Clint says, taking his bow off his back and pulling an arrow out. “I’ll even let you go first.”  
Alex shrugs, trying to hide a smirk.  
“All right,” she says.

AVENGERS

The group of Avengers were all upstairs in the tech room, a surveillance tape playing on one of the screens. Thor was standing and watching it, having just been briefed on the problem.   
“And we have no clue as to what they are planning?” he asks.  
“No,” Fury replies. Thor nods his head. Fury looks around the room and notices someone is missing. “Romanoff.”  
Natasha looks up from the plans on the table in front of her and Steve.  
“Where’s Barton?” Fury asks.  
“Having a long overdue talk,” she says, daring Fury to question Clint’s decision. Fury nods his head and looks over at Coulson.   
“You told them?” he asks him.  
“Yes, earlier today,” Coulson replies.  
“Good, we need…” Fury begins but is interrupted by a loud explosion. He stumbles as the building shakes. The group looks around, tense and ready for action.  
“What was that?” Steve asks.  
“That’s a good question,” Fury asks.  
“Stark!” Steve shouts across the room.  
“Already going,” Tony says, already running to where his suit is being kept.

AVENGERS

Clint jumps, kicking himself off the wall and flipping, landing and shooting an arrow at the target, hitting the bull’s eye. Alex groans. They had been at this for twenty minutes and neither one of them had acquired a letter yet. Clint smirks and walks over to her.  
“My turn,” he says, his smirk growing and giving her a look. Alex narrows her eyes at him. He takes aim without looking away from her and let’s go, the arrow flying through the air and hitting the target directly in the middle. Alexandra’s eyes grow big, full of excitement.  
“That was awesome!” she shouts, prying her eyes from the target and looking over at Clint. “How did you do that?”   
She practically skips over to the target and gets a closer look at it, finding it has indeed hit the bull’s eye. Clint puts his arms down, holding his bow at his side, grinning. Alex looks back at him.  
“I want to learn how to do that. You can teach me that right?” she says excitedly. Clint chuckles.  
“Yeah, I can teach you that,” he says with a smile.  
“Awesome! This is going to be so cool!” she says. “When can we…?”  
Suddenly, there is a big explosion and Alex grabs the target stand next to her to prevent her from falling. She looks over at Clint who is looking around trying to see what could have caused it.  
“What was that?” she asks. Clint moves his attention to his daughter.  
“I don’t know,” he says. He waves a hand at her. “Come on.”  
Alex jogs over, taking her bow from him. 

AVENGERS

“Hill, what’s going on?!” Fury shouts as he and Coulson enter the main room.  
“Someone just blew up our communications tower,” Maria Hill answers.  
“Who?” Fury demands. Hill points at the screen above them. Fury and Coulson turn and look to see a group of figures making their way towards the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound, a handful of which are flying in the air. Fury begins talking into his earpiece. “Captain, tell me you guys are ready.”  
The only sound to answer him is static and Fury curses under his breath.  
“Fury. Fury what’s going on,” Steve says into his own com, meeting up with Tony, Natasha, Thor, and an already “hulked-out” Banner in one of the hallways. He doesn’t get an answer and turns to the group. “Where’s Hawkeye?”  
“Do you really need to ask that question Captain?” Tony asks. They all knew he was still with Alexandra and he wasn’t going to leave her until he knew she was safe. Rogers nods his head and the five of them make their way outside.   
Back in the main room, Fury turns to Hill and Coulson.  
“Get our agents together,” Fury orders. Hill and Coulson nod their own heads and disappear, shouting out orders to the agents around them.

AVENGERS

The Avengers, excluding Hawkeye, make their way outside. They stop when they notice there is a group of eight people making their way to the building; all of them young adults around the age of twenty and most of them wearing suits you would see on a superhero, or villain.  
“Stark. You and Thor take up top. We’ll cover the ground,” the Captain says. Tony and Thor fly up to the air. Suddenly, a bright light flies from one of the people in the air and heads straight towards them. They bolt to opposite sides and the light hits a tree behind them. The tree falls and crashes on top of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building.   
Iron Man and Thor charge at the guys in the air who meet them halfway. Natasha and Captain America meet a few guys on the ground in hand-to-hand combat. Hulk meets up with another guy who morphs into a less green version of himself but more hulked out than Johnny. 

AVENGERS

Barton and Alex run down the hall towards the main room. They hadn’t seen anything that could tell them what is going on. Nothing except agents running around obviously following orders of some sort. They round a corner and they almost run into an agent who apologizes and moves to hurriedly walk past them. Clint grabs her, stopping her in her tracks.  
“Hey, what’s going on?” he asks.  
“Someone took out our communications tower,” she replies before shrugging out of his hold and rushing down the hall.   
“Okay, let’s go,” Clint says to Alex, grabbing her arm and leading her down the hallway. There is another explosion and a loud cracking noise. Clint looks out the window and sees the tree slightly ahead of them disappearing from view. He reaches ahead of him and grabs Alex, yanking her back and into a doorway. There is a loud crash as the tree falls onto the building, caving in the roof and breaking the windows. Clint and Alex peer around the corner and notice the hallway is closed off.  
“Now what?” Alex asks.   
“Come on,” Clint says, gently, but firmly grabbing Alexandra’s wrist and pulling her with him. Clint leads them down another hallway, stopping when an agent comes out from a room, cutting them off.   
“Barton. And…Barton,” Coulson says, noticing who is standing in front of them.  
“Coulson what’s going on?” Clint asks.  
“We believe all those people the scientists did their experiments on have taken out our communications tower,” Coulson begins.  
“Wait, how many people are there?” Alex cuts in.  
“We counted eight outside right now. We don’t know if there are anymore but…” Coulson says.  
“B hallway is closed off by a tree,” Clint says informatively. Coulson nods his head in understanding before speaking.  
“The others are outside dealing with the scientist’s group,” Coulson says, knowing Clint will know who he’s talking about. “They could use some eyes up top.”  
“Alex go with Coulson,” Clint says already running to the roof stairs.  
“But I can help!” she shouts after him, but it falls on deaf ears as Clint round the corner. Alex let’s out an exasperated sigh.  
“I need you to do something else,” Coulson says walking towards the main room. Alex follows after him.  
“What?” she asks.  
“They took out our communications tower. Stark built a device that will get our coms back up and running if we put it up high,” Coulson says.  
“Like how high?” Alex asks, walking into the main room with him.  
“Like the ‘lattice’ high,” Coulson says. The lattice was one of the steel structures to warn planes from flying overhead with warning lights attached at the top. Alex looks out the window at the lattice and sighs.  
“Give it to me,” she says, still looking out the window but holding her hand out to Coulson. Coulson puts the box in her hands and Alex begins walking out the door.  
“Take Sanford with you,” Coulson says to her back. Alex runs through the halls, pulling out her phone and dialing a number.  
“Alex?”   
“Johnny, I need your help. Meet me at the South door,” she says, hanging up the phone and turning the corner.


	4. Chapter 4

Clint flings open the door and takes the steps two at a time. He shoves the door to the roof open and quickly, but stealthily, makes his way to the side of the roof. Tony and Thor are in the air fighting while Natasha, Banner, and the Captain are fighting on the ground. There is a bang and Tony’s opponent flies backwards having been hit by one of Tony’s beams. Clint readies an arrow. Seeing one of the opponents aim a gun at Romanoff, he lets the arrow fly as he looks to his right, seeing another opponent tag team against Thor. The arrow hits the guy in the arm, causing him to drop the gun. Natasha round kicks her opponent in the head, sending him sprawling to the ground before turning and doing a scissors take down on the guy with the arrow in his arm. Barton readies another arrow and shoots it at the tag teamer. The guy moves but the arrow catches him in the stomach, sending him to the ground.   
Thor hits his opponent with his hammer, sending him through the air and into a steel structure, causing it to bend slightly. The opponent falls but catches himself before he makes it to the ground. Thor looks around and notices more of these guys must have shown up because there are now sixteen of them. An arrow flies by him and hits a target in the leg behind him. He looks over and sees Hawkeye on the roof of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building.   
“We need to get communications up and running again!” Stark shouts to Steve as he lands on the ground, hitting an opponent.  
“How do we do that?” Steve asks.  
“I gave Coulson a box. We have to get it up high and it’ll get it back online,” Stark says to him.   
“I just saw a couple people running over to the lattice,” Natasha says, joining the two of them. “Would that be high enough?”  
“Definitely,” Tony says, turning and hitting an opponent in the face. For a bunch of experiments, these kids were hard to beat. And that’s not including all the technology they were hooked up with.

AVENGERS

Alex runs down the hallway towards the South door, seeing Johnny is already there. She comes to a stop in front of him.  
“Alex what’s going on?” Johnny asks. Alex holds up the box Coulson had given her.  
“We have to get this up on top of the lattice,” she says. Johnny raises his eyebrows.  
“What? You know I don’t like heights,” Johnny says, shaking his head.  
“I know, which is why I’m doing it and you’re making sure no one climbs up after me,” Alexandra says, slipping the box into her pocket. She opens the door and peers outside, not seeing anyone around. She waves at Johnny and the two of them hurriedly runs towards the lattice. Off to their left, the avengers are fighting.   
They reach the bottom of the lattice and Alex grabs a rung, pulling herself up. She hears a ‘psst’ sound and she looks back down at Johnny, raising one of her eyebrows.  
“Did you just ‘psst’ at me?” she asks amusedly. Johnny shrugs his shoulders.  
“Be careful,” he says.   
“I’m always careful,” Alex says as if the thought of her not being careful was ridiculous. Johnny sighs in annoyance, knowing she was a magnet for trouble. He looks back up after her finding her already climbing up the lattice.   
There is a bang and Alex looks over to see one of the enemies getting flung backwards by one of Iron Man’s beams. She looks down below her and sees she’s about halfway up the lattice. She takes a deep breath and looks above her, reaching up to grab another bar and pull herself up. She climbs a little ways further before hearing another sound and Alex looks over in time to see Thor sending an opponent through the air. Alex’s eyes grow big as the opponent heads straight towards her. He smashes into the lattice a little ways above her, resulting in the structure to bend slightly. The lattice shakes and Alex hangs on for fear of falling. The guy falls and Alex hugs the lattice as he drops past her. She looks below in time to see him catch himself.  
“What the hell?” she says, wondering how he can survive that crash. The guy gets his bearings and pulls himself up, his gaze looking up towards her. She was further up from him but she could still see the evil smirk playing on his lips. He immediately begins climbing up the lattice after her. “Johnny!”  
Johnny hears his name being called and he looks up to see one of the scientists’ guys climbing up the lattice after Alex. He knew Thor knocked him into the lattice but he didn’t think the guy would’ve survived the hit. He looks around, trying to find something that’ll help him but doesn’t see anything. He looks back up the lattice, scowling.  
“Dammit,” he mutters, knowing he’s going to have to climb up after them.   
“Now would be a really good time to ‘buff out’ on me Johnny,” Alex says, hurriedly climbing further up the steel structure. She hears a noise and she looks down to see Johnny has changed into his alter ego and she quickly resumes her climbing. Johnny squats and jumps up the lattice, grabbing one of the steel bars and begins flinging himself up it. Alex gets to the bent part of the lattice and begins climbing, finding it slightly more difficult due to the odd angle. She feels something grab her boot and she looks down to see the guy below her yanking on it. She loses grip on one of her hands and she dangles from the bar.  
“Johnny!” she shouts, but doesn’t have to say anything else as Johnny jumps up, grabbing the opponent and ripping him off the lattice. Johnny and the guy fall to the ground and Johnny makes sure he lands on top of the guy, landing a destructive blow to the head, effectively knocking the guy out. Alex grabs the bar with her other hand and gets her feet on a lower one once again. She makes quick work of the last quarter of the steel structure and pulls out the box in her pocket. She connects it to the top of the lattice and turns it on. She looks over at the S.H.I.E.L.D. building waiting for anything to tell her that it worked.   
“Fury. Coulson. Tell me someone can hear me,” she says into her com when she doesn’t get anything she’s satisfied with.  
“Barton? Barton is that you?” Coulson’s voice comes in. Alex lets out a relieved sigh.   
“Yeah. So, you guys going to do something or are you just going to sit and twiddle your thumbs?” she says, still watching the building in front of her.   
“She climbs one lattice and she thinks she’s done all the work,” Alex hears Fury’s voice complain over the com.

AVENGERS

Coulson smirks at Fury’s complaint, but quickly wipes it off when Fury turns to look at him. Fury narrows his eyes at him but doesn’t say anything about it. They had more important things to deal with now that their communications were back up and running.   
“We need to get…” Fury begins but another explosion cuts him off as everyone in the room stumbles, not expecting it. “What the hell was that?”  
“Sir,” Hill says, turning away from the screens to Fury and Coulson. “They’re gone.”

AVENGERS

Natasha flips over her opponent and kicks him in the kidney, sending her flying to the ground. She halts for a second when she hears voices coming over her com.   
“Sounds like our communication system is back up and running,” Steve says into his com.  
“Good, now we can organize and blow these guys out of here,” Tony says.   
“Always one to go for the dramatics,” Natasha says into her com, earning a look from Stark who is still in the air before he beams an opponent away from him. He moves to attack him when there is a bright light.  
“Nat! Cap! Get out of there!” Clint shouts, having seen from overhead. Natasha and Steve make a run for the building just as there is a loud explosion. Clint ducks down behind the roof as Stark and Thor get blasted backwards. They land on the roof, sliding a few meters away from Clint. Stark shakes his head, sitting up and Thor pushes himself to his feet, holding out a hand. Mjolnir returns from a few feet away and into Thor’s hand.   
“Uh…guys…” Tony says, standing up and looking at the space they were just fighting. Hawkeye stands up and turns around, Thor looking in the direction as well. Natasha and Steve walk back out the door they had dove inside. Banner stands up from his lying position on the ground, looking as well. All of the scientists’ people were gone.  
“Where’d they go?” Hawkeye asks.

AVENGERS

“Johnny, you good?” Alex asks, hearing the Avengers’ conversation end.  
“Yeah, I’m good,” he replies from the ground, looking up and trying to see Alex, but she’s too far up. Alex begins climbing down when a bright light catches her attention. She looks over just as a loud explosion is heard. She sees three figures running towards the building and two in the air being flung backwards. That’s when she also notices the explosion cloud making a beeline straight for her. Her eyes grow big.  
“Uh…Johnny…” Alex says, trying to hurry down the lattice. The cloud smashes into the lattice, causing it to shake and jolt, but not break. Alex loses her hold, falling. She tries to grab her bow and one of the arrows with a string (Coulson stole the idea from Hawkeye. Well, many of the arrow ideas were stolen from him) to shoot it at a bar, but is unable to.   
“Alex!” Johnny shouts, seeing her lose her grip and begin falling, trying to get her arrow and bow. Alex is able to get her bow loose but as she’s about to grab an arrow, Johnny smacks into her, grabbing her and crashing to the ground. They roll a few times before sliding and coming to a stop. Johnny rolls over and lies on the ground, letting out a relieved sigh. Alex matches his position, staring up into the dusty sky. She coughs a few times before groaning. Johnny looks over at her.  
“You good?” he asks. Alex lets out a groan.  
“Yeah, I’m good,” she replies, pushing herself up to a sitting position. Johnny climbs to his feet and holds out a hand. Alex takes it and he pulls her up. She immediately begins looking around, seeing her bow a few meters away. She slowly walks over and picks it up off the ground, her bruises and sore muscles already making themselves known.  
“You look like crap,” Johnny says, taking in her dirt covered face, hair, and clothes. Not to mention the bruises on her arms and the one of her face from either crashing into the lattice or the ground. Either one would have done it.   
“Well, if you had ‘buffed-out’ sooner and could actually land worth a damn I’d be fine,” Alex says with no real heat in her voice. Johnny sends her a smirk.  
“Yeah, but this way’s more fun,” Johnny says, having turned back to normal. Alex snorts and gives him a playful shove.  
“Come on. Let’s get back,” she says, walking towards the South door.

AVENGERS

“What happened? Where did they go?” Steve asks Fury as the team walks into the main room.   
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Fury replies.   
“So now what?” Banner asks.  
“Now, we get ready. This isn’t going to be their only attack. In fact, I believe this was a test. They’re next attack is going to be bigger in a bigger area,” Fury says.  
“You thinking New York?” Clint asks.  
“That would my guess,” Coulson says, joining up with the group.   
“What I don’t get is why? Why did they attack us?” Stark puts in.  
“And not anyone else?” Thor adds.  
“You think it might be something personal?” Natasha asks.  
“Could be,” Fury replies. “What we need, is to know who these guys are? The scientists. The kids they experimented on. And we need to know if these kids are doing this by their own choice or if they are being controlled in some way.”  
Natasha feels Clint tense up next to her. She knew his mind had wandered back to Loki and when he had put Clint under his control with the Teseract.   
“And how are we going to do that? We don’t have much information on them?” Stark says.  
“We start digging,” Fury says, “And we have a computer genius who can get it for us.”  
Clint looks around and notices Alex is nowhere in sight. He turns his attention back to Coulson. He had left her with him and now he had no clue where she was.  
“Where’s Alex?” Clint says. Coulson looks over at Barton. Natasha looks over at Clint herself before she realizes as well that her daughter wasn’t there either.  
“She…uh…went to go put Tony’s box on the lattice,” Coulson says.  
“Oh,” Barton says, then, he remembers something. “Wait, communications came back before the blast.”  
“Yes,” Coulson says slowly.   
“You sent her out there during the fight?” Romanoff says angrily.  
“She could handle it. She’s an agent, it’s what she does,” Fury says. Romanoff and Barton shoot him a glare.  
“Have you heard from her? Is she okay?” Natasha asks.  
“We heard from her just after we got communications back,” Coulson replies.  
“How about after the blast?” Barton asks. Coulson looks at Hill, knowing he just might get killed by these two for putting their daughter in jeopardy. “Coulson!”  
“Is everything all right in here?”   
The team, Coulson, Hill, and Fury all turn to see a very dirty banged up Alex and Johnny walk into the room.   
“What happened to you? You look like you rolled around in the dirt?” Stark asks.   
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t have a million dollar suit to keep me clean and do my dirty work for me. I actually kick as off my talent alone,” Alex says, annoyed. Natasha, Clint, Steve, and Bruce all suppress a smirk and/or laugh. Tony looks at her for a moment before turning to Coulson.  
“I like her. She speaks her mind. Damn the consequences,” he says.   
“Where’d all those guys go?” Alex asks.  
“We don’t know,” Bruce says.  
“But we’re going to find out,” Fury says.


	5. Chapter 5

The Avengers, Fury, Coulson, Alex, and Johnny are all in the computer room. A young woman, about eighteen, with blond hair is sitting in front of the computer system working feverishly.   
“Tell me you’ve got something for us Nina,” Fury says to the young woman. Nina rolls her eyes.   
“If you’ll give me a couple minutes I’ll get you a lot of something,” she says.   
“Have you been hanging out with Barton again?” Fury asks. Nina smirks and shares a look with Alex, who returns her smirk.   
“All right, here we go,” Nina says, pulling up a bunch of different windows on the screen. She pulls one of the windows forward. “This is the list of all of the kids they have experimented on and this…”  
Nina pulls another window up alongside the first one.  
“…is the list of the scientists,” she continues.  
“How did you get all of this?” Stark asks, taking a step forward.   
“Uh…genius,” Nina says as if this explains everything.   
“It looks like they’ve got twenty four kids,” Natasha says, taking a closer look at the list of kids.  
“Twenty-three. One of them is Johnny’s,” Steve says.   
“Is that footage?” Banner asks, pointing at another window. Nina pulls it up and hits a few buttons. The video, time-stamped a few days earlier, begins playing. The group watches as a man in his thirties is training a large group of kids. Alex watches it for a minute before pushing her way forward to get a better look. Her eyes widen when she realizes who the trainer is.  
“Johnny? Is that…?” she asks, looking back at Johnny, who has also realized who the trainer is.  
“Morris,” Johnny says before looking over at Fury and Coulson. “I think we’ve found our answer. This is definitely personal.”

AVENGERS

“So, the Morris guy...” Barton begins.  
“Was in charge of the Child S.H.I.E.L.D. program before it merged with this building,” Coulson says.  
“So, why isn’t he in charge of it still?” Rogers asks.  
“We didn’t agree with some of the ways he handled certain…issues,” Fury says.  
“What kind of issues? And what ways?” Romanoff asks.  
“It’s not important. What’s important is we relieved him of his duty with the children a year ago. We still kept him around, but a few months into it, Morris was killed on a mission,” Fury says.  
“Or, was supposedly killed,” Coulson corrects.   
“So, now he’s taking his anger out on S.H.I.E.L.D. and using these kids to do his dirty work,” Banner says.   
“Seems like it,” Coulson replies.  
“And these young people? Are they doing this by choice?” Thor puts in.   
“Most likely,” Johnny says. Everyone turns to him. “These kids had a rough childhood. These scientists gave them something to make them feel special. Worthwhile. And Morris? He’s a great motivator.”  
“Which means there’s still a chance we can save these kids,” Steve says.   
“If they want to be saved,” Stark says. “If Morris is as good of a motivator as Johnny says he is then maybe they don’t think they need saving. Maybe, they believe we’re the bad guys.”  
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Banner says sarcastically.

AVENGERS

“Coulson!” a woman yells down the hall as the group leaves their room. Coulson turns around and sees who it is. Alex turns around as well, letting out a groan.  
“Agent Peterson,” Coulson greets. Michelle Peterson holds up a sheet of paper. Coulson raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you’re trying to show me.”  
“This is Alex’s progress report,” Peterson says. Stark makes a face and he all but shoves Banner, Rogers, and Thor down the hall. They didn’t need to get involved with this.  
“Okay,” Coulson says slowly, taking the paper from her.  
“She hasn’t been completing her homework,” Michelle says, giving Alex a look.  
“I’ve been busy,” Alex argues.   
“Let me see that,” Clint says, taking it out of Coulson’s hands and he and Romanoff look at it, seeing Alex hasn’t handed anything in for any subject for the past month. Coulson sighs.  
“And you’re telling me this why?” Coulson asks. Alex has a smug look on her face.  
“Because, you can prevent her from doing any S.H.I.E.L.D. work until she turns in her work,” Peterson says.  
“What? No way!” Alex exclaims. Coulson holds up his hand, trying to calm everyone down.  
“Barton, you need to do your school work,” he says to Alex.  
“Seriously? I think there’s more important things to do,” Alex argues.  
“You’re sixteen. And if you’re a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. you need to complete your schooling,” Coulson counters.  
“What are you talking about? There’s plenty of agents here that are high school drop outs,” Alex points out. Coulson sighs. Romanoff steps in.  
“Alex, no one’s saying you have to go to college but doing well in high school will help you in the long run,” Natasha says, noticing her daughter’s stubborn set of her jaw.   
“Why worry about doing school work when I could be helping someone. Saving someone’s life,” Alex argues. Natasha sighs. Clint puts a hand on her shoulder.  
“I got this,” he says quietly to Natasha and Coulson. Clint turns to his daughter and gives her a grin. “Tell you what. For every A you get on an assignment, I’ll spend a half hour teaching you how to shoot without looking.”  
Alex looks at her dad, thinking about this for a moment before answering.  
“Fine. Deal,” she says, turning and taking the offered folder of assignments from Peterson before walking off to her room. Coulson, Romanoff, and Peterson look over at Barton. Clint just shrugs.  
“You just have to know how to speak her language,” he says before walking off himself.

AVENGERS

“Hey,” Johnny says, poking his head in to Alex’s room. “You ready?”  
“Huh? For what?” Alex asks, looking up from her desk.  
“You were going to spar for me remember. You still are aren’t you?” Johnny asks.  
“Oh, uh…yeah. Hold on,” Alex says, typing a few more things into her computer.   
“What are you doing?” Johnny asks, walking over and looking at the screen. “Wait, is that homework?”  
“Uh…yeah,” Alex says, saving the paper and exiting out of the program.   
“Since when did you start doing homework?” Johnny asks. Alex just shrugs, getting up and walking out of her room. Johnny watches her back for a moment. “Wait, who convinced you to do your homework?”  
Alex ignores him and walks down the hall. Johnny runs after her, shutting her door behind him. 

AVENGERS

 

Oomph!  
Johnny lets out a breath of air when Alex rolls him over and lands on top of him, pinning him down and putting him in a shoulder lock. Alex shoots him a smirk. There is a clear of a throat and the two of them look up to see Coulson standing nearby. Alex lets go of Johnny and jumps up to her feet, Johnny following after her.   
“I have backgrounds on all of the kids under Morris,” Coulson says, holding up a thick file.   
“Okay…” Alex says slowly, raising an eyebrow in question.  
“I need you to take it to Avenger Tower. Give it to Barton, Romanoff, Stark, whoever. We need to know who we’re dealing with before things get even more out of control,” Coulson says.   
“Can I take the Camaro?” Alex asks with an innocent grin. Coulson narrows his eyes, thinking about this.  
“Sure. If Johnny goes with you,” Coulson replies.   
“Okay,” Alex says, grabbing the file and walking out the door. Coulson turns to Johnny.  
“Make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid,” Coulson says.  
“Does doing donuts count as stupid?” Johnny asks with a smirk.  
“Johnny,” Coulson warns. Johnny puts his hands up in surrender.  
“Okay, okay,” he says, turning and running to catch up with his partner.

AVENGERS

Alex pulls the yellow Camaro up in front of the Avengers Tower and parks the car. Grabbing the large file, she climbs out of the car, followed by Johnny. The two of them walk up to the door and Alex hits the buzzer.  
“Can I help you?” an electronic male voice says.  
“Uh, yeah. We’re here to see…Clint Barton. Or any of the Avengers would do,” Alex says, looking at Johnny and shrugging her shoulders. Johnny shrugs his own shoulders; Coulson did say they could give the file to any one member of the team.  
“And may I ask who is visiting?” JARVIS asks.  
“Alex…Barton,” Alex says.  
“One moment,” JARVIS says. A few moments later, the voice comes back. “Please come in.”  
The door opens and Alex and Johnny enter the tower. They look around the room, taking in the surroundings.  
“The elevator is straight ahead,” JARVIS says causing Alex and Johnny to share a look at hearing the voice in the room. “Go to the top floor.”  
“Uh…thank you,” Alex says, not sure what to say to a bodiless voice. The two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents walk over to the elevator where it automatically opens and Alex pushes the button for the top floor. A short time later the elevator stops and the doors open to reveal an apartment. Alex and Johnny exit the elevator and walk into the room, looking around at their surroundings.   
“Alex?” Alex and Johnny turn around to see Natasha walk into the room. A small smile appears on Alex’s lips.  
“Um…Coulson wanted us to drop this off for you guys. Its backgrounds on all of Morris’ guys,” Alex says, handing Natasha the thick file. Natasha takes it and walks over to the kitchen counter, opening it up and looking at the papers inside. Johnny walks away and begins snooping around the room while Alex follows her mom to the counter, taking a seat in one of the stools.   
“You think you guys can save them?” Alex asks, looking at the papers. Natasha looks over at her daughter, seeing familiar blue eyes looking back.  
“We hope so,” she says. Alex nods her head in understanding. They would try, but if these…rogue could be heroes didn’t want to talk…wouldn’t listen, they’d have to do whatever it takes to stop them. “How did you two get here?”  
“Coulson let us take the Camaro,” Alex says. Natasha’s head swerves to face her.  
“He let you take the Camaro?” she asks, disbelievingly.  
“Yeah, I guess he has a soft spot for me or something. Says I remind him of two agents he knows,” Alex says with a smirk. Natasha returns the smirk with an identical one of her own. Alex nods towards Johnny. “Besides…he sent me with a babysitter.”  
“A babysitter would mean I actually have a say in what you do or don’t do and you actually listen to me,” Johnny says, turning to give Alex a grin. Any retort from Alex is cut off by Tony and Clint walking into the room, bickering about something. They stop when they notice Alex and Johnny in the room.  
“When did you get here?” Clint asks.  
“About ten minutes ago,” Alex replies.  
“Coulson sent files on Morris’ kids over,” Romanoff explains, holding up one of the papers. Clint walks over to take a look. He sends a glance towards Alex.   
“You do any of that school work?” he asks already looking back at the papers in front of him and Natasha.  
“Uh…yeah. I finished the first two weeks,” Alex answers. Clint nods his head.  
“Good. Tell your teacher to send the grades on them and we can get started,” Clint replies, glancing over at Alex who is trying to act nonchalant about this, but failing.  
“Wait,” Johnny says, walking over with a grin in place, “Little Miss I Do Whatever I Want, No One’s The Boss Of Me did her homework because daddy told her to?”  
“Shut up,” Alex says, shooting Johnny a glare.  
“This is awesome,” Johnny says with a small chuckle. Alex grabs an apple off the table and chucks it at him, hitting him in the dead center of the forehead. “Ow! Really? Was that really called for?”  
“Yes,” Alex says. Johnny picks up the apple and chucks it back at her, hitting her in the arm. “Ow!”  
“At least it wasn’t your forehead,” Johnny says, giving her a look. Alex glares at him.  
“All right children,” Stark says, picking up the apple and setting it on the counter. He turns to Clint and Natasha. “Will you please control your daughter?”  
Clint picks up the apple and throws it at Tony. Tony tries to dodge but it still hits him in the shoulder.   
“I see the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree,” Stark grumbles.  
“Well, we got to get back,” Alex says, hopping down from the stool. Natasha and Clint look over at her.  
“You’re leaving?” Natasha asks.  
“You just got here,” Clint points out.  
“Yeah, I was in the middle of kicking Johnny’s ass when Coulson asked us to bring that over,” Alex says.  
“You were not kicking my ass,” Johnny argues.  
“I was kicking your ass so bad you’re going to need reconstructive surgery,” Alex says with a smirk. Natasha chuckles.  
“Well, then can you give me the number of yours so I know who not to call,” Johnny retorts. Clint snorts, giving Johnny props for not backing down.  
“You realize I look just like my mom right?” Alex counters with a cocky smirk. The door to the elevator opens and they step in.  
“Yeah, I know I…Oh,” Johnny says, realization hitting him midsentence. He turns to look at Natasha. “I didn’t mean anything bad about you. I…”  
The doors to the elevator close, interrupting any other excuse Johnny could have. Natasha smirks and turns around in her seat.   
“You even have the kids afraid of you,” Stark says to Natasha.  
“Well, not everyone’s Clint,” Romanoff says.  
“What? An assassin?” Stark asks.  
“My partner.”  
“Her partner,” Clint says the same time Natasha does.   
“Which is why Johnny’s not afraid of Alex,” Clint says with a smirk himself. 

AVENGERS

Alex comes to a stop at the stop light in front of them. Johnny looks over at her. Alex can feel his eyes on her.  
“What?” she asks.  
“You respect Barton and Romanoff,” he says. Alex’s eyebrows furrow before looking over at him.  
“What?”  
“You don’t do anything someone tells you to do unless you respect them,” Johnny explains. Alex looks back at the red light, shrugging.  
“Yeah, I guess I do respect them,” Alex says.  
“That’s a step,” Johnny says, knowing Alex knows exactly what he’s talking about. Alex sighs.  
“Listen, I…” she begins but a loud crashing noise interrupts her. Alex and Johnny look around them, trying to find the cause of the noise. They look to their right in time to see a bunch of people running towards them. “What the…?”  
“Alex…” Johnny says as a metal, machine-looking creature appears, taking out the cars next to them. Before they can react, the creature crashes into them, rolling the car over and knocking it out of the way before plowing into a building. 

AVENGERS

Alex comes to, looking around, wondering why everything is upside down. Everything begins to come back to her and she looks next to her, seeing Johnny coming to as well. She looks around, seeing people running by and screams escaping their mouths.  
“Johnny?” Johnny shakes himself awake and looks around before looking over at her.  
“We need to get out of here,” he says, unhooking his seatbelt and falling to the ceiling. “Alex come on.”  
Alex unhooks her own seatbelt, falling to the ceiling as well. Johnny shoves open the door and climbs out of the upside down car, followed by Alex. Johnny begins walking away, but Alex grabs him.  
“Wait, I need my bow and arrows,” Alex says.   
“You brought them?”  
“I never leave without them,” she replies.  
“Where are they?” Johnny asks. Alex gives him a sheepish smile before looking at the trunk. Johnny sighs. By the time Alex looks back at him, he has ‘hulked-out’. Johnny approaches the Camaro and tips it over right side up before yanking the trunk open. “Happy?”  
Alex just gives him a look before reaching in and grabbing her bow and arrow-filled quiver. There is a whoosh behind them and they turn around to see Thor.  
“Where did you come from?” Johnny asks.  
“I was heading back to the tower when I saw…this. What happened?” Thor asks, looking around at the destruction.  
“I think it’s started,” Alex says. There is a loud noise and the three of them turn to see more mechanical monsters approaching, leaving destruction in their wake.   
“You two get back to the tower. Get the others,” Thor says, beginning to spin his hammer.  
“You’re going to need back-up,” Johnny says, noticing figures appearing in the sky. Thor looks at him and nods his head. “Alex…”  
“Already gone,” she says, taking off towards the tower, hoping she won’t be too late.


	6. Chapter 6

Alex runs down the street, seeing the Avenger tower to the North a few blocks away. There is a loud bang and the next thing she knows, Alex is catapulting through the air. She smashes into a pillar, her face hitting the cement. She falls to the ground, letting out a groan. She shakes her head, feeling something wet dripping down her nose. Reaching a hand up, she wipes it off and looks down at her hand, seeing blood. There is a noise to her left and she looks up to see one of Morris’ kids approaching her.   
“Dammit,” Alex mutters, pushing herself to her feet. The guy raises an arm and fire shoots out towards her. Before Alex can do anything, a body flies in front of her and crouches around her. Alexandra feels the heat but she realizes she doesn’t get burned. She looks over and sees it’s the Captain and he’s blocking the flame with his shield.   
“Go, I’ll keep him busy. Just bring backup,” he shouts, leaping forwards and attacking the kid in front of them. Alex gives them one last look before running down the street once again, this time keeping an extra lookout for any more of Morris’ kids.   
Ten minutes later and Alex skids up to the door of the Avengers’ Tower and she hits the buzzer about ten times. She is breathing heavy from running so fast for so long, not to mention dodging debri.   
“Alexandra Barton. You’re back,” JARVIS says.  
“JARVIS let me in. Now,” Alex demands. The door opens immediately and Alex plows through it and runs over to the elevator, hitting the ‘up’ button a few times too many. “Come on, come on.”  
Just when she’s about to give up, the elevator doors open and she runs inside, running directly into someone. Alexandra stumbles back but the person catches her arm and keeps her upright. Alex blinks and takes in the inside of the elevator, seeing Clint in front of her surrounded by Natasha, Tony, and Bruce; all of which are suited up.  
“Good, you’re ready. Things have gotten really bad really fast out there,” Alex says. “Thor, the Captain, and Johnny are already out there. They need some help though.”  
Clint takes in the sight of his daughter in front of him. There is a cut on her forehead as well as a bruise and large bump; not to mention the bloody nose. Her appearance doesn’t go unnoticed by Natasha either.  
“Are you okay?” she asks. Alex shifts her attention to her.  
“Me? Uh…yeah, I’m fine,” she says.  
“How did you get the cut and bump? And the bloody nose?” Natasha asks, the group leaving the elevator and making their way through the entryway. Alex wipes at her nose again, having felt the blood flow down once again.  
“They have these mechanical creatures. One of them crashed into the car, flipped it over. Then I ran into one of Morris’ kids. But I’m fine,” Alex says.   
“You should go upstairs get yourself cleaned up,” Clint says.  
“I’m fine,” Alex says, grabbing a pile of Kleenex off a nearby table and covering her nose, squeezing the bridge of it to stop the bleeding. Alex follows after them towards the door, which Natasha notices.  
“You should stay here,” she says, not wanting her daughter out there in the line of fire.  
“No way. I’m coming to,” Alex argues.  
“Romanoff’s right. It’s dangerous out there…” Tony puts in.  
“So it’s all right that Johnny’s out there, but not me?” Alex asks sarcastically. “I’ve been with S.H.I.E.L.D. for six years now. I do know a few things.”  
“Johnny’s older,” Barton points out.  
“He’s seventeen. Only a year older than me,” Alex shoots back.   
“Alex…” Romanoff begins.  
“Johnny’s my partner. I’m not leaving him out there by himself,” Alex argues, leaving no room for argument. “You two should be able to understand that.”  
Barton and Romanoff share a look, indeed being able to understand her logic. They look over at Tony and Bruce. Bruce shrugs his shoulders; it wasn’t his call. Tony can already see they’ve made a decision.  
“Your kid, your call,” Tony says, “But we’ve got to go.”  
“Fine. But stay close,” Romanoff says, following after Tony and Bruce. Alex tosses the bloody Kleenex into the garbage, the bleeding having stopped, and walk out after Romanoff. Clint takes the back of the group.

AVENGERS

Steve swings his shield and knocks the kid he’s fighting into the wall. The kid hits his head and crumbles to the floor. Steve looks over and sees Johnny take out one of the mechanical creatures. He notices something move behind Johnny. He realizes it’s a smaller mechanical creature, about the size of a small dog. It has wings and speeds towards Johnny.  
“Johnny!” Steve shouts. “Behind you!”  
Johnny turns around to see the small machine zip towards him. It opens its mouth, two rows of sharp spinning teeth on top and bottom appearing. Johnny steps to the side and punches the creature, sending it flying across the street and through a window.  
“What the hell are those things?” Johnny asks. “They’re like flying piranhas.”  
“I don’t know,” Steve answers, “Just make sure they don’t get ahold of you.”   
There is a loud crash and the two of them swivel their heads to the left in time to see Thor swing his hammer at one of the large creatures, sending metal flying and a giant hole appearing in it. Thor hits it again, this time in the face. The large machine nosedives into the ground, flipping over and coming to a halt. Thor lands next to them, noticing, as well as the other two, the large number of mechanical creatures appearing as well as Morris’ kids.  
“We can’t get to the kids if all we’re doing is fighting these mechanical beasts,” Thor says.  
“Well, let’s hope Alex got to Avengers Tower,” Steve says. There is a thump behind them and they turn to see one of Morris’ kids. The girl holds out a hand, ice instantly beginning to form. Steve shoves Johnny out of the way just as the girl shoots a beam of ice at him. Steve holds up his shield, but is propelled back into a car and over top it. Thor takes on a boy who has appeared, hitting him with Mjolnir, sending the kid flying. The kid lands on the ground, sliding a few yards. The girl turns to see Johnny pushing himself to his feet. An evil gleam appearing in her eyes, the girl raises her hands, taking aim. Johnny looks up and sees this, but before he can do anything, an arrow flies through the air. Before it hits the girl, it opens up and a net engulfs her. The arrow embeds itself into a car behind her, dragging the girl with it, wrapped tight in the net. Johnny looks up and sees Alex lower her bow slightly, giving him a look, eyebrow raised. Johnny rolls his eyes. He notices a group of the flying piranha creatures make a beeline for Alex and his eyes grow wide.   
“Alex!” Johnny shouts. Alex turns to see the small creatures, their mouth already open. An arrow flies past her, hitting a creature in the middle before it sends numerous other arrows out to the other creatures, blowing up and sending the parts across the ground. There are a few stragglers and Alex takes aim, sending three quick arrows at them. The arrows stick into them, blowing up as they do so. Alex looks behind her and sees Clint give her the same look she had just given Johnny.  
“Bruce!” Steve shouts. Bruce looks over at him. “You and Johnny tag team!”  
The Hulk looks over at Johnny, each of them smirking. The two of them take off.   
“Thor, Tony. Take the skies,” the Captain orders. Thor and Stark fly off. “Hawkeye. You and Alex get up high. Take out what you can. Be our eyes. Just like in the Battle of New York.”  
Hawkeye and Alex nod their heads and run towards one of the buildings.   
“Romanoff, we’ll work down on the streets,” Rogers says before talking into his coms to the whole group. “Try to keep the kids alive if you can.”

AVENGERS

Hulk leaps up onto a building and jumping off that, landing on one of the large creatures. He begins tearing it apart causing it to crash into another building. A mechanical piranha bites into the Hulks shoulder. Hulk grabs it and smashes it into the building before grabbing a few more and doing the same thing. The Hulk runs down the street, seeing Johnny dealing with another large creature.  
Johnny runs down the street to take on a school of mechanical piranha’s having seen the Hulk handling his large creature just fine. Johnny runs up to the group of piranha’s and begins punching them across the street and smashing them into each other causing them to fall to the ground. He hears a rumble and looks up to see one of the large mechanical slug-like creatures coming towards him. He hears a crash behind him and looks back to see the Hulk dismantle his own slug. Johnny looks forward and jumps onto a car, shoving himself into the air in time to land on top of his own mechanical slug. He grabs just behind where its head would be and jerks it down and to the left, sending the slug to the ground. Just as the slug crashes to the ground, Banner catapults himself at it and rips the head off it. Johnny and Banner share a look before going after more of the creatures. 

AVENGERS

Tony flies into the sky, aiming and shooting at one of the mechanical slugs. The front of the slug explodes and it crashes into the ground. He hears a noise and turns, moving just in time to miss being hit by a beam. One of Morris’ kids is in the air a few yards away. Tony shoots the kid, but he dodges it, sending his own shot towards Tony. Tony tries to dodge it but it hits him in the shoulder sending him spiraling into a building. He catches himself and propels up into the air, crashing into the kid. The two of them crash into a building and Tony brings him to the ground, hitting him and knocking him out. He sets him up against a steal beam and ties his hands behind him with a cord he finds. A piece of metal flies by them and Tony looks up to see Thor take out a school of mechanical piranhas and turning to smash Mjolnir into a slug, creating a hole. He smashes Mjolnir into it a few more times sending the slug to the ground. Tony aims and shoots it, making it explode.   
“We have to figure out what’s controlling these things!” Tony shouts at Thor. Thor nods his head. Tony talks into his com. “Cap you hear me?”  
Steve doesn’t answer but another voice does.  
“I can make a call, see what I can find out,” Alex’s voice says through the coms.  
“Let us know when you find something,” Tony says.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

Clint and Alex run into one of the taller buildings on the block. They head straight to the elevators and get in, taking it to the top floor. Running out, they instantly begin looking for stairs to the roof.  
“Clint!” Alex shouts. Clint turns around and sees Alex already heading to a door, opening it up. He follows her and the two of them run up the stairs taking them two at a time. Alex shoves through the door and heads to one of the sides. Clint runs over to the adjacent side. Clint grabs an arrow and shooting it at a group of piranha creatures. It hits one, exploding, sending out more explosives to the others in the group, demolishing all of them. Alex pulls out an arrow and aims, letting it go. The arrow sails through the air and attaches itself to a slug. She shoots a few more at different spots on the slug. They beep a few times before the first one explodes, setting off a chain reaction. The slug falls apart, crashes to the ground. Clint looks and sees one of Morris’ kids fly through the air nearby.  
“Alex!” Alex turns and looks over at Clint. “You still have those arrows you use for Johnny?”  
“Yeah, why?” she says. Clint nods his head towards the kid.  
“Because I think we need them,” he says. Alex turns to look and sees the kid. She pulls out an arrow and shoots it at one of the building, the arrow embedding itself into it. She shoots another one, which sends a small blast propelling the kid into the wall. Another arrow embeds itself across from the first and a steal bar appears, holding the kid to the wall.   
“We have to figure out what’s controlling these things!” Tony’s voice appears into the coms. “Cap you hear me?”  
Steve doesn’t answer so Alex steps in.  
“I can make a call, see what I can find out,” Alex says into her com.  
“Let us know when you find something,” Tony’s voice says. Clint looks over at her.  
“You know something?” he asks. Alex shakes her head.  
“No, but I’m sure Nina can find out for us,” Alex says, pulling out her phone. She pushes a few buttons and puts the phone to her ear while Clint continues to shoot down creatures and be the teams eyes.   
“Hello?”  
“Nina. Hey, I need you to do something for me,” Alex says into the phone.  
“Okay. Wait are you in the city?” Nina asks, hearing the noise in the background.  
“Yeah,” Alex replies.  
“What is it?” Nina asks.  
“Something has to be controlling these mechanical creatures. Is there any way you can figure out what or where?” Alex asks.  
“Yeah, I mean, if whatever it is, is sending out a frequency, I can trace it. It might take a while though. I mean, it’s New York City,” Nina says, already typing into her computer.  
“Just do it as fast as you can,” Alex says, “Call me when you get something.”  
Alex hangs up her phone and puts it into her pocket.


	7. Chapter 7

Steve had heard Tony but he was kind of busy at the time. He was fighting one of Morris’ kids and finding out what was controlling the mechanical creatures wasn’t at the forefront of his mind at the time. He was relieved to hear Alex say she’d look into it. It was one less thing he had to worry about trying to do. They had been knocking out Morris’ kids as they went along, tying them up and attaching them to light poles, beams, buildings, anything they could. A net flies by Steve and he looks up to see another one of Morris’ kids getting caught in Alex’s Net Arrows and attaching to a building. Steve looks over to see Natasha shooting at the piranha creatures, dropping them like flies. They were leaving the slugs for Tony, Thor, Bruce, and Johnny; they were a little more capable of destroying them.   
Steve hears screams and turns to look for where they are coming from. He notices a group of teenagers in a group, the piranhas attacking them. Steve runs towards them, picking up a large pipe that had flew out of a building and landed on the ground. He reaches the group and begins hitting the piranhas as they come at him.  
“Get inside! Now!” Steve yells at the group of teenagers. The teenagers don’t waste any time and bolt towards the closest building, taking cover inside.  
Natasha shoots at the last couple piranha’s coming at her. She hears Steve yell and looks over to see him having batting practice with another group of the mechanical piranhas. Seeing he’s got everything under control, Natasha turns to take care of whatever else she can find. She is stopped by one of Morris’ kids, standing in front of her. The girl grins mischievously and swings a stick at Natasha. Natasha dodges it and smashes her hands into the back of the girls shoulder, sending the stick hand away from her. Natasha steps into the girl and lands an elbow to her face. The girl stumbles back, a sneer on her face. She swings the stick again. Natasha dodges it, stepping to the side and landing a spinning hook kick to the kids face. The girl’s head flings to the side and she falls to the ground, knocked out.  
“That was way too easy,” Natasha says. She grabs the girl and drags her to the nearby light post and ties her to it. Romanoff talks into her com. “Clint, you got anything for me?”  
“One of Morris’ kids is around the corner from you. Careful, he one shoots fire,” Hawkeye says. Romanoff looks back, checking to see Steve is still okay. Steve hits the last piranha with his pipe and looks over at Natasha, having heard her and Clint’s conversation.  
“Go! I’ll be right behind you,” Steve shouts. Natasha doesn’t waste another minute and runs around the corner.

AVENGERS

Tony smashes into a slug, shooting fire beams out of his feet to propel it to the left. As he straightens out the slug, Thor throws his hammer at it. Mjolnir crashes into the slugs face and plows down throw the body, exiting out the tail. The slug falls apart, banging into the ground.   
“Alex, you got anything yet on what’s controlling these things?” Tony asks into his com.  
“No not yet. I’m waiting for Nina to call me back. It shouldn’t be…umph,” Alex says.  
“Alex. Alex!” Tony yells into his com when he doesn’t get an answer. Tony decides to switch gears. “Hawkeye?”  
“We got one of Morris’ kids up here. She’s a little busy right now,” Hawkeye says.  
“We have any more of these kids we have to take care of?” Tony asks.  
“Next street over on your left,” Hawkeye replies. Tony looks to Thor and the two of them head to the next street .

AVENGERS

“Alex, you got anything yet on what’s controlling these things?” Tony’s voice sounds over the coms.  
“No not yet. I’m waiting for Nina to call me back,” Alex answers. She hears a sound behind her and turns to look while continuing talking. “It shouldn’t be…umph.”  
One of Morris’ kids tackles her to the ground. Clint turns around to see what is wrong. Alexandra flips the girl over and lands a punch to her face. The girl shoves her hips up and throws Alex off of her. Alex flies forward and, in order to save her face, tucks into a roll, coming to her feet.  
“Alex. Alex!” Tony’s voice is heard. “Hawkeye?”  
“We got one of Morris’ kids up here. She’s a little busy right now,” Hawkeye replies, turning to see a group of piranhas coming towards them and shooting them down. The girl charges at Alex and Alex steps to the side, grabbing her and putting a well-placed knee into her ribs, hearing a crack. The girl lets out a groan and Alex shoves her into the wall, slamming her elbow into her nose as she does so. The girl collapses to the floor.  
“Alex?” a female voice says over the coms.  
“Nina?” Alex says, grabbing the girl she just knocked out under the arms. “Did you hack into our coms?”  
“Yeah, figured this would be easier,” Nina says. She hears Alexandra grunting. Alex pulls the girl over to a pole and, grabbing a rope she finds on the roof, ties her up.   
“You got something for us?” Alex asks.  
“Yeah, there’s a signal being sent out to the creatures…” Nina says.  
“And…?” Alex asks.  
“It’s not only controlling them but Morris’ group as well,” Nina replies. Alex stands up.  
“Morris is controlling what these guys are doing?” Alex asks, she looks over at Clint, sharing a look.  
“You guys get that?” Clint says into his com.  
“Yeah, we got that,” Steve’s voice replies.  
“Nina, how’s he controlling them?” Tony’s voice pipes in.   
“He’s doing it from his phone,” Nina answers.  
“All right so if we get his phone, do you know how to disable the signal?” Natasha asks.  
“Yeah, I can tell you step by step how to do it,” Nina replies.  
“Good, because we’re going to need all the help we can get,” Steve says.  
“Hey, not all of us are ancient artifacts Captain. Some of us do know how to work technology,” Tony says.  
“Not the time Stark,” Steve says. “First things first, we need to find Morris. Hawkeye…”  
“Already on it,” Clint says, searching the city around them for any sign of Morris.

AVENGERS

Natasha notices one of the last few of Morris’ group down the street standing on top of the hood of a car. She swiftly makes her way towards him, making sure to keep undercover. She sneaks up behind him and sweeps his feet out from under him. The guy falls back and smashes into the windshield of the car. Natasha grabs his feet and yanks him off the hood of the car. The kid falls to the ground and as Natasha throws a kick at him, he rolls to the side, flipping himself up onto his feet. As he gets to his feet, he quickly spins and throws a spinning crescent kick at Natasha’s head. Natasha steps into him, blocking the kick and throwing a few punches, hitting him in the face. The guy stumbles backwards and Natasha throws a round kick, connecting with the kids head. The kid falls to the ground and Natasha immediately starts looking around for something to tie him up with.  
“I got it,” Steve says. “Clint found Morris. Go get that phone.”

AVENGERS

Steve throws his shield at the group of piranhas across the street. It takes out the group and returns back to him like a boomerang. He looks over to see Natasha run down the street to where another one of Morris’ kids is standing on a car.   
“Hawkeye, tell me you’ve found him,” Steve says.   
“Not yet Captain,” Clint says into the com.   
“Keep me posted,” Steve says. He turns and knocks out a stray piranha, sending it flying into the building next to him.   
“Captain,” Clint’s voice says. “I got him.”

AVENGERS

Clint looks to his left, trying to see if he can find Morris anywhere. He aims his arrow to his right and lets it go, hitting a group of piranhas and taking most of the group out. Alex moves to grab an arrow and realizes hers are all gone.   
“Damn,” she says.  
“You all out,” Clint asks, glancing at her before turning back to his search.  
“Yeah, not for long though,” Alex says as she hits a button on her bow. Clint looks over at her, eyebrows furrowed in curiosity.   
“What?” he asks, but stops when he hears a whistle. Something flies by his head and he looks around seeing a couple dozen arrows flying through the air and landing in Alex’s quiver. He raises his eyebrows and Alex smirks.  
“I was lazy and didn’t want to retrieve them all the time,” she says, pulling out an arrow and shooting it at the rest of the piranhas and taking them out.   
“I’m going to have to talk to Coulson when we’re done here,” Hawkeye says, turning to continue looking for Morris. A smile appears on his face. “Captain. I got him.”  
Alex hears the announcement and walks over to see where Morris is. She sees him down on the street, watching the proceedings. He takes out his phone and pushes a few buttons on it before returning it to his jacket pocket. There is a crash and Alex and Clint look below them to see Johnny crash a slug into the ground before taking off towards Morris.  
“Dammit,” Alex says.


	8. Chapter 8

“Captain. I got him.”  
Johnny looks up at the building Alex and Clint are and sees where they are looking. He looks in the same direction seeing Morris down the street. He also sees a slug coming towards him. He runs towards it, jumping up and grabbing a part of it, steering it down and smashing it into the ground. He doesn’t wait to see if it’s completely destroyed before he takes off running towards where Morris is; he hits any of the piranhas that are in his way as he does. Morris sees him coming after him and smiles. Johnny sneers and jumps at him, but Morris steps to the side. Johnny expects this and turns just in time to crash into him, landing a heavy punch to his face. 

AVENGERS

“Johnny!” Alex shouts, but Johnny doesn’t hear her. Alexandra watches as Johnny jumps at Morris. Morris swerves but Johnny rotates in time with him, crashes into him and hitting him in the face. Alex fights a war inside her head, but makes a decision. Before Clint can do anything, Alex grabs an arrow and shoots it at the building kitty-corner to them, a string attached to it. Alex jumps off the building, swinging towards Johnny and Morris.  
“Alex!” Clint shouts, reaching to grab her but missing. “Dammit!”  
“Nat, Johnny went after Morris,” Clint says into his com.  
“I saw,” Natasha’s voice says.  
“Nat, Alex went after him,” Clint adds.  
“What? I’m on my way,” Natasha replies.

AVENGERS

Alex swings through the air, the string propelling her towards where Johnny and Morris are fighting. As she reaches the peak, she lets go and somersaults through the air, landing on the ground in a crouch. She runs the rest of the way to where her partner is.   
“Alex!” Johnny’s voice shouts. Alex looks over and sees something flying through the air at her. She runs to the side a little and easily catches it, seeing it’s a phone. She pushes a button and the screen lights up and she realizes its Morris’ phone.  
“Nina, I got Morris’ phone. Talk me through this,” Alex says, going behind a car. 

AVENGERS

Johnny’s punch sends Morris stumbling backwards and Johnny capitalizes on his opening. He throws another punch and hits Morris in the face. Morris falls to the ground and Johnny follows him. Morris throws and kick, hitting Johnny in the stomach, stopping him from climbing on top of him. Johnny stumbles backwards, falling to the ground. Morris flips up and throws a kick at Johnny’s midsection only to have Johnny roll to the side. As he does this, Johnny spins and sweeps Morris off his feet. Not wasting any time, Johnny jumps on top of Morris and throws a few good punches at him. Morris blocks them and flips Johnny over, landing on top of him. Little does Morris know, but Johnny grabs Morris’ phone out of his pocket when they flipped over. Morris throws a punch, hitting Johnny in the face. As the next punch comes at his face, Johnny blocks it and grabs Morris’ head, yanking it down and slamming his elbow into his face. Morris is dazed and Johnny shoves him off of him. Johnny jumps to his feet in time to see Alex running towards him.   
“Alex!” Johnny shouts, throwing the phone through the air towards her. He sees her catch it right before he’s crashed into. Johnny falls to the ground but turns in time to land on his back. Morris is on top of him again.

AVENGERS

“Nat, Johnny went after Morris,” Clint’s voice sounds over the coms. Natasha is standing in the street, having seen Johnny take out one of the slugs before running towards Morris.  
“I saw,” she replies.  
“Nat, Alex went after him,” Clint says.   
“What?” Natasha asks, her head swivels to where Johnny and Morris are fighting. She doesn’t see Alex anywhere but then something flying through the air catches her eye. She looks up to see Alex swinging towards where Morris is. “I’m on my way.”  
Natasha runs through the street, pulling out her gun and shooting any piranhas coming at her. She jumps over debris, climbing over top when necessary. She sees Alex let go of her string, somersaulting in the air and landing in a crouch. Something flies through the air at her and Alex catches it. Natasha shoots another straggling piranha as Alex’s voice comes over the coms.  
“Nina, I got Morris’ phone. Talk me through this.”  
Natasha sees movement off to her right and notices one of Morris’ kids jump off a car and landing on the ground across the street from where Alex is. She pulls out a gun and aims it at Alex. Natasha runs, jumping on top of the same car and vaulting herself through the air, kicking the girl as she falls to the ground. The shot goes wide, exploding whatever it was that it hit. The girl bangs into the car on her side and Natasha throws a punch, hitting her in the face. The girl bounces back thought and throws a punch of her own. Romanoff blocks it and throws another punch only to have it blocked. She quickly steps to the side and hits the girl in the ribs, hearing a loud crack. The girls stumbles backwards, holding her ribs and Romanoff throws a spin kick, connecting with the girls face. The girl’s head whips to the side, colliding with the car next to her. She falls to the ground and without hesitation, Natasha hits her in the face, effectively knocking her out. 

AVENGERS

Alex starts pushing buttons on the phone, following Nina’s directions coming at her through the coms. She hears a thud and looks up in time to see Romanoff jump off a car and kick one of Morris’ kids, but not before she shoots towards her. Alex lunges forward as the car she was hiding behind explodes. She crouches down and covers her head from any debris flying through the air. Standing up straight, she lets out a sigh of relief.  
“Nina, we’re going to have to hurry here. I’ve got a target on my back now that I have this damn phone,” Alex replies.  
“I can go faster, can you actually keep up?” Nina asks sarcastically.  
“Just tell me what I need to do, will you?” Alex counters.

AVENGERS

Clint watches as Natasha runs down the street to where Alex has gone. There is an explosion behind him and he looks to see Thor and Hulk taking out another slug. He turns his attention back to where Romanoff went, seeing her take out one of Morris’ kids. A car behind Alex blows up and Natasha is in hand-to-hand combat with the girl. He sees another one of Morris’ kids coming up behind Alex and jump on top of her, sending her sprawling.  
“Dammit. Tony, a little help here,” Clint says, needing a fast way to get over there.   
“Hang tight Legolas, I’m coming,” Tony says, zooming over to where Clint is. Clint jumps up into the air, grabbing ahold of Starks arm. Tony flies him to where Alex is and Hawkeye drops to the ground. Morris’ kid pulls a gun out to shoot Alex and Clint lunges at him, tackling him to the ground. The two of them roll a few yards away, coming to their feet. Barton throws a punch, connected with the guy’s face. He follows it up with another punch, this one also connecting with his face. The guy stumbles backwards and Clint advances on him. Morris’ kid tries to get his bearings, but trips over some debris. He falls to the ground and notices what he’s tripped on. He picks up the metal bar and swings it, hitting Clint in the ribs. The guy jumps to his feet and swings it at Barton’s face. In the meantime, Barton has grabbed his bow off his back and blocks the swing just in time. Clint shifts and hits the kid in the face with one end of his bow. He shifts again, aiming to hit him in the ribs with the other end of his bow. The guy blocks it and tries to spear Clint in the stomach with the metal bar. Barton parries the bar out of the way with his bow and smashes the one end into the guys face. As the guy stumbles back, something changes in his eyes, and he looks at Clint, confused. Barton assumes Alex disabled the control over them but isn’t going to take any chances and hits him in the face with a well-placed punch. The kid falls to the ground in a heap. 

AVENGERS

Alex begins following the instructions Nina is giving her over the com, aware of the fight between the girl and Romanoff across the street. Suddenly, someone crashes into her, sending her sprawling across the street, the phone flying out of her hand. Alex turns around, eyes growing wide at seeing the guy pull out a gun to shoot her. Before she can do anything, a body flies by, crashing into the kid and tackling him to the ground. The two bodies roll a few yards away, coming to their feet. Alex realizes its Clint. Seeing he’s got everything under control, Alex turns to grab the phone, but doesn’t see it anywhere.  
“Crap! Crap, crap, crap,” she says.  
“What?” Nina asks.  
“The phone flew out of my hands and now I can’t find it,” Alex explains.  
“It flew out of your hands? How the hell did that happen?” Nina asks.  
“I was attacked,” Alex retorts.  
“I thought you were supposed to be good at this stuff,” Nina instigates.  
“Tell you what. I get back to headquarters in one piece I’ll show you how good I am,” Alex responds none too heatedly.   
“Well, find it,” Nina demands.  
“What do you think I’m doing?” Alex asks sarcastically. Her eyes catch the phone a couple yards away and she quickly scrambles over to it, picking it up. “Got it. Now what?”  
“You push the big red button that says ‘Disable’,” Nina says. Alex ignores the jab and pushes the button. She looks around, not seeing any change. Just when she thinks it hasn’t worked, the slugs and piranhas instantly fall to the ground. The last few of Morris’ group stop what they are doing, confusion developing in their eyes.   
“Wow, you’re actually good for something,” Alex says, her turn to instigate.   
“More than I can say for you,” Nina says. Alex goes to say something but a gunshot rings out.

AVENGERS

Morris throws a couple punches at Johnny after knocking him to the ground. Johnny blocks them and throws one of his own. Morris blocks it as well, and throws another one himself. Johnny blocks it and flips Morris over, landing on top of him. It’s his turn to throw a couple punches landing one on Morris’ face. Morris flips Johnny off him and Johnny rolls away, getting to his feet as fast as he can. He’s about to go after Morris again when all of the mechanical creatures start falling instantaneously to the ground.  
“About time,” Johnny mutters. Morris, angry at being defeated, has gotten up and throws a kick, hitting Johnny in the stomach, sending him to the ground. He pulls out his gun and aims it right at Johnny. What’s with all the guns Johnny thinks. Suddenly, a shot rings out and Morris jolts, collapsing to the ground. 

AVENGERS

Natasha sees all of the mechanical creatures falling to the ground. She also notices the kids from Morris’ group halting in their steps and confusing entering their eyes. She looks over at Clint and sees him knock out the kid he was fighting. Her eyes roam over to where Johnny and Morris are and she sees Morris kick Johnny, sending him to the ground. Morris reaches for his gun and Natasha grabs her own gun and aims it at Morris as he aims his gun at Johnny. Before Morris can pull his trigger, Natasha pulls hers and hits Morris. Morris jolts and falls to the ground.


	9. Chapter 9

Johnny walks into the shooting range at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters. They had gathered up all of the kids in Morris’ group and they were taken back to S.H.I.E.L.D. to see their scientists. They found chips implanted into the back of their heads that allowed Morris to have control over what they do. Afterwards, they had all headed back to S.H.I.E.L.D. themselves. That was yesterday. There is a thud and Johnny looks over to see Alex pull another arrow out of her quiver and shooting it at the target. He walks over and leans up against the wall next to her, watching her. Alex sighs.  
“You going to say something or are you just going to stand there watching?” she asks.   
“You weren’t in class today,” Johnny says.  
“I had a lot to think about,” Alex replies.  
“Like?” Johnny asks. Alex sighs again, putting her bow down and turning to face him. She studies him for a minute before saying anything.   
“Like, my parents,” Alex says. Johnny waits for her to continue. If I stay here then it’d be really hard for me to get to know them. But if I live with them then I can get to know them but it’ll be really awkward.”  
Johnny smirks and opens his mouth to say something, but Alex holds a hand up.  
“Shut up,” Alex says. Johnny smiles but closes his mouth. He looks at Alex and gets serious.  
“What do you want?” he asks. Alex looks at him curiously.  
“What do you mean?” she asks.  
“With your parents. What do you want?”  
“I…I want to get to know them. But…”  
“But what?” Johnny asks.  
“But I’m not ready to live with them,” Alex replies.  
“So find a happy medium,” Johnny says. Alex gives him a look.  
“Find a happy medium? That’s your bright advice? I thought you were supposed to be smart,” Alex says.   
“Find a middle ground Alex,” Johnny says, patting her shoulder before walking away. Alex sighs and turns back to her target. She raises her bow and lets the arrow go, the arrow hitting the bulls-eye.

AVENGERS

Alexandra walks into her room, closing her door behind her. She walks over to her bed and goes down on her hands and knees, looking under her bed. She moves some things around but then pulls out a small suitcase. She sits on her bed and opens it up, pulling out one of the objects, a purple blanket. Alex strokes it, taking it all in. Her eyes land on the one corner with writing on it. ‘Alexandra Daniela Barton’ is sewn on it. She wasn’t ready to live with her parents; she probably wouldn’t be for a while. But she wanted to get to that point eventually. Making her mind up, Alex folds the blanket back up and places it back into the suitcase. Closing the suitcase back up, she slides it back under her bed and leaves her room. 

AVENGERS

Alex swiftly walks down the hall, looking inside every room she passes. She knew they were supposed to be here, she just didn’t know where. Alexandra rounds the corner and comes to a stop. Just ahead of her in a meeting room surrounded by glass windows and doors, stood her parents and Coulson. Alex stands and watches them for a moment, trying to get her courage up. When it looks as if they are getting up to leave, Alex takes a deep breath and determinedly walks over to the room. She pulls open the door and walks inside. Coulson, Natasha, and Clint all look over to see her enter the room.  
“Barton. Aren’t you supposed to be at the gym?” Coulson asks. Alex gives him a look before turning to look at the two agents in front of her.   
“Can we talk?” she asks.  
“Yeah, of course,” Natasha answers. Coulson shares a look with Romanoff and Clint before announcing his departure.  
“I have some paperwork to do,” he says, exiting the room.  
“Everything all right?” Natasha asks. Alex opens her mouth to say something but then closes it. Now that she was here, she wasn’t so sure she could do this. Suck it up Barton, get a move on Johnny’s voice says inside her head.  
“I…I don’t want to live with you,” Alex rushes out, seeing identical pained looks on her parents face before they cover it up. She hurriedly goes on to explain. “Not yet anyways. But eventually I will want to. So, I was wondering if I could come and visit. Up at the tower…and stuff. At least to start off with.”  
Clint clears his throat.  
“Yeah, yeah, of course you can,” he replies. A relieved smile appears on Alex’s face.   
“Okay, good,” Alex says, nodding her head, not really knowing what else to say. “Um…I guess I should get over to the gym.”  
Alex turns to leave but Clint’s voice stops her.  
“Or, I mean…” Alex turns back to face him, giving him a curious look. Natasha is giving Clint the same curious look. “I talked to your teacher. Said you finished the first two week of assignments?”  
“Uh…yeah,” Alex answers.  
“So, I guess I owe you some practice time. We could always go to the shooting range now and skip the gym…”  
“Barton,” Natasha scolds.  
“What?” Clint and Alex ask, looking innocent.  
“She’s still training,” Clint points out.  
“And I think I deserve a little fun after everything,” Alex adds. Natasha gives them both a look. I’m going to have my hands full with these two Natasha thinks to herself. She sighs.  
“Go,” she says, waving her hand. Clint and Alex give her identical grins and take off towards the shooting range.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, please, please review! Thank you to everyone who’s been reading and following this story and thank you to everyone who’s reviewed! It’s been a blast writing this story and I hope everyone had a blast on this journey as much as I have had. So my question goes to you guys. Do you want to see a sequel? I’ll probably write it anyways, but if a lot of people want to see a sequel I’ll put it up higher on the list of stories to write. Please let me know! 

**Author's Note:**

> Please review and let me know what ya'll think!


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